I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.

A community of small farmers... land property owners, will be the only assurance that the freedom our republic offers will be guaranteed to each and every citizen.

Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.

The first object of human association [is] the full improvement of their condition.

the boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.

We have no paupers ... The great mass of our [United States] population is of laborers; our rich, who can live without labor, either manual or professional, being few, and of moderate wealth. Most of the laboring class possess property, cultivate their own lands, have families, and from the demand for their labor are enabled to exact from the rich and the competent such prices as enable them to be fed abundantly, clothed above mere decency, to labor moderately and raise their families. ... Can any condition of society be more desirable than this?